Re: why would you turn javascript off?

Large numbers of people turn javascript off who look at adult sites, because 
of the practice of 'farming traffic',  where a user clicks on one link and a 
couple of new windows open (each earning a credit for the owner) and when 
any of those windows are clicked, more open, until the entire system is 
locked with dozens of  windows open.

The only way out of this loop is having javascript turned off.

This practice of 'traffic farming' was highlighted in a Sydney newspaper 
report on Saturday, about a guy in Brisbane who has made a fortune (and I'm 
talking Lamborghinis here!) doing just this.  The story was about a scam 
where someone copied a legitimate site, leaving the meta tags intact but 
changing the links to suit themselves.  Eventually the search engines 
started driving traffic to the bogus site, and then users clicking a link 
legitimately would find themselves in one of these loops - with dozens upon 
dozens of lurid windows opening on their systems and no apparent way to get 
out of it.   The shocked surfers would close a window and two or three more 
would open, none of which would show anything like whatever the person 
originally wanted to see.   And each click and each window earned commission 
for the 'traffic hijacker'.  With hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps 
even millions, each opening dozens of windows, there was loads of 
commissions paid to whoever perpetrated this scheme.

And of course, once you did this with one legitimate site, there's nothing 
at all stopping you doing it with dozens or hundreds of them.  And millions 
of people wanting to see about the latest in 
double-overhead-camshaft-foam-backed-scrumption-shiners instead get ads for 
Bambi the sex-crazed lesbian.

Just thought you'd like to know.

And that's one reason why people surf the web with javascript turned off.  
They're at work and they dont want the boss seeing they're looking at porn.  
They want to be able to close the window in a hurry if needs be without more 
opening up at just the wrong moment.

(p.s.  I dont have a Lamborghini!!)

Cheers,
Mike Kear
AFP Web Development
Windsor, NSW, Australia


>
>Hi,
>A site I am involved in uses extensive navagation through javascript
>pulldowns, of which I am no great fan.
>
>What I am looking for are reasons why people would surf with javascript
>turned off so that I can then use that as a reason  for getting rid of the
>pulldown. (my reason of I don't like it - it hides the contents - has been
>deemed insufficient).
>
>Many thnx in advance
>
>Stuart
>
>

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